20k Antique Kerosang Brooch Pins Bouquet
1900s 3-pin kerosang ‘rantey’ brooches set in 20k gold.
This Straits Chinese set is an authentic period piece, handcrafted at a time between the 1930s and 1950s.
This set is the ‘vertical’ type, the motif is a bouquet of flowers. These vertical brooches come to us less commonly than the horizontal ‘insect’ or filigree motifs.
These floral forms are carved, one pin is actually slightly different from the other. The setting of freeform hand-cut rose cut diamonds into these forms required a very specific technique.
In those days, the craftsmen were trained to deliver these brooches with gold work than is simultaneously thin (lines) yet thick (robust). This delicate fineness is only seen in period pieces of Straits jewellery.
These kerosang pins are detachable, to wear singly, and originally intended to pass on to one or more children.
This set has a pretty interlinking chain, a distinct floral pattern over common circular or chain links.
The quiet and sparse motifs (‘sparse’ for Peranakan filigree) makes this a rather Westernized kerosang set. This is what makes a set like this ‘classic’, yet somehow, rarer.
Reproduced pieces today stand apart from these original forms. Later pieces, even as early as the 60s, could be heavier in gold weight, but they suffer in delicacy.
Each pin is 4.5cm tall and 2cm wide.
